Weekend report August 29 - 30

The forecast for Saturday was good, but reality was even better.  They told us we would get 2 or 3 knots to 5000 feet, ending at 5pm, but in fact we enjoyed 4 knot climbs to over 6000 feet, and there was still lift at Post Mills after 6pm.  Nobody complained about the inaccurate forecast.

It was a combination of cross-country flying and test-prep flight instruction.

With most of the serious xc guys out of town, Evan (T8) was the only one who flew far.  He took off first, racked up 524 km (including a couple of motor runs) and landed last.  This is his seventh >500 km flight out of Post Mills this year.  Amazing.  His first and third turnpoints were at Jay Peak and Killington.  In between the two he flew to a spot near where New Hampshire, Maine, and Quebec come together, not near any known turnpoint.

He made a couple of kerosene-powered saves at Morrisville and Montpelier.  The towpilots thank him for not landing at either of those two places.

We tried our first lead-and-follow cross-country instruction with more than one student.  It sort of worked.  Five of us headed out on the standard 100 km training triangle (Post Mills, Harvey Lake, Brushwood Road).

Dean Memorial airport (just short of the Brushwood Road turnpoint) is the safe place to land for the entire task.

After an informal briefing, five gliders were launched between 12 noon and 1pm, and we left for Harvey Lake at about 1:30.  Three made it around the course, and only two managed to stay together the whole way.  We have a lot to learn about pre-flight planning, programming and using our glide computers, using our Flarms, and communicating efficiently.  But it was a good start.  More ground and flight instruction is needed!

Back at Post Mills, it was intensive test-prep for many of the potential candidates for flight tests next month.  Jeff, Erzo, Friedrich, and Kevin all flew (both solo and with instructors).  Don towed 18 flights in total, and Moshe and Mark instructed.  Mark didn't get a chance to fly his new glider (DG) until after 4pm.

Sunday was a rainy loss.  Zach drove all the way from Burlington to work on the 2-33.

Weekend report August 15 - 16

 In addition to the successful flight tests over the weekend, we had a few more noteworthy flights.

On Saturday, Greg and Moshe (our notable test-prep instructors) wisely concluded that their work with applicants was done, and they went flying.  Greg (JR) flew a 514 km quadrilateral, with the first leg going southwest to Mount Snow, where he reached his high point (6800 feet) at 2:11pm.  He landed back home at 7pm.

Moshe (PM) showed up not planning to fly, but he was able to spend a couple of hours getting refamiliarized with the 304.  That makes 8 different glider types for him this year, all flying out of Post Mills.

Tim (BU) flew 226 km, including an out-and-return to Twin Mountain, and Evan (T8) took a late start and flew a South Carolina-shaped flight all over Vermont and New Hampshire (384 km).

Shawn (SB) flew with Greg for 300 km but was unable to make the last leg from Plymouth to Post Mills.  He arrived at Plymouth at 3000 feet, struggled there for a bit and eventually landed.

Kevin went to get him.  Shawn and Kevin were the only ones who missed the party and the beautiful sunset at Post Mills.

By comparison, Sunday was a quiet day.  Toby took his flight test in the morning, before anyone else arrived at the field.  Newly-soloed Mathias disappeared in the 2-33 for a couple of hours, and new member Phil Gerding flew PM for the first time.

Then the towplane went to Dean for maintenance, and we're hoping to get it back for some more flying before next weekend!

April 27 report

Another outstanding report from Andy Kozak: 

Gliding in New England usually starts with the Super Bowl. So far this year it has been true to form. Monday April 27^th started off with a very good omen. A bald eagle soaring over Post Mills airfield. His tail feathers were illuminated by the sun making them look brighter than any I had ever seen. I was third to be towed up after Greg Hanlon and Tim Chow. Rick Sheppe was the tow pilot. He fairly quickly found a thermal and turned tightly to bring me back into it. We entered the thermal a second time, so I released. Somehow, I felt that I immediately lost the thermal, but looking back at my flight trace I was in lift as I turned 180 degrees, had I just kept turning I would have likely still been in lift. Not sure what happened there.

I flew toward where Tim and Greg were climbing trying two circles on the way which gained me nothing, but I picked up enough altitude in between them to keep going. Finally the vario started to rise, as hoped for, and I could relax.

Greg (JR), Tim (BU), and I (2R) joined up across the Connecticut river in a thermal over Piermont Mountain. I was the lowest but at 6000 feet I decided to leave the weakening thermal because the clouds ahead looked very good. Prior to takeoff, Greg had suggested we make Sugarloaf in Maine our goal. I knew that was a long way and thought it might be difficult for me but that is the direction where I headed. Kinsman notch passed below us, then we flew over Cannon Mountain and Franconia notch. We skirted Mount Lafayette and passed over Twin Mountain. We skirted Mt Washington and flew over Mount Adams and Madison all the while searching for the darkest spots under the clouds.

Mount Lafayette

Mount Washington

We had not yet turned to gain altitude. Greg had pulled ahead and Tim had fallen behind. That is the pecking order of our gliders on glide with Greg’s JS1, my ASW 27 and Tim’s HpH 304CZ. Tim has 17.4m wings and he outclimbs me, but I have a better glide at higher speeds. Greg beats me at everything.

I focused on flying smoothly and at the correct speed to fly. We were at about 8000 feet as we approached a large blue hole over Gorham. Greg flew straight across and I followed. At 5500 feet. Near Berlin I found a strong thermal. The entire route to this point had airfields within easy reach. The first is Dean, then Twin, Mount Washington (Whitefield), Gorham and Berlin. Except for the blue hole over Gorham there was barely a break in the clouds. From here north, as far as I was concerned, the map said “Here be dragons.” To be fair, last fall I flew a bit past Old Speck Mountain (Maine) in wave, so I had a pretty good look toward Sugarloaf. I also would have Berlin airfield which was just toward the east and Bethel airfield just to the west behind me.

Greg had diverted a bit to stay over the Mahoosuc range. I took a straighter path. Somewhere before Grafton Notch, Greg had to take several thermals while I was able to continue straight. I passed him without knowing it. The area around Richardson Lakes seemed overdeveloped but still provided plenty of lift.

Richardson Lakes

I only needed to stop for one more thermal before reaching Sugarloaf Mountain. We had decided to try for Jay Peak next, so I turned and headed west.

We had been flying over the spine of the mountains, and Sugarloaf is essentially the end of those mountains. There is a short and very distinctive Bigelow range just to the north of Sugarloaf. But the nearly continuous cloud street was at an end.

Bigelow range in the distance

It took some time for me to find good lift but I was in range of the Rangeley airfield. Greg had continued further to Sugarloaf airfield. He seemed to find several 12 knot thermals, the best in his life. I was just trying to find a thermal. Tim was struggling a bit as well but we finally got going again.

Greg and Tim suggested airfields and a course line - making my life easier. I had to stop to refuel every 5 or 10 miles but the clouds mostly worked well. Flying parallel and close to the Canadian border I could look almost straight down at the Derby Line crossing. Not much traffic in either direction. Greg caught up to me near Lake Memphremagog.

Lake Memphremagog

I led the way across and then we turned over Jay Peak. I could see skiers getting off one of the lifts near the peak. There was still quite a bit of snow on select trails.

Looking back over the lake we could see the area had turned significantly bluer. Tim was behind us and turned south at about that point. Greg and I shared a last thermal just past Morrisville airport. At Sugarloaf Greg had flown approximately 15 miles further to turn at the airport. In addition he had closed the original 10 mile gap. 25 miles gained, probably over the course of 160+/- miles. In the end Greg would fly 423 miles at an average of 67 mph.

After our last thermal together he flew down the crest of the Greens past Okemo and back to Post Mills. I chose to turn over Ascutney. We live on the slopes there. Normally I would call my wife when passing overhead and she comes out to try to spot me. She has gotten good at that.  At 7000 feet there was no cell reception.

On final glide, between Lebanon and Post Mills, I flew under a cloud where I gained 500 feet in about a minute of straight flight. The clouds were beginning to thin but there was still some strong lift. By then all of us were on final glide. Tim ended the day with 337 miles. I flew 374 miles at an average speed of 61 mph. This was my first 600 km flight. The previous day was my first 500 km flight also at an average of 61 mph. Consistent.

I had intentionally not maxed out my climbs, but left while lift was strong. The clouds looked so good and lift was plentiful so that seemed to work well. It was much easier to do with a high cloudbase. The first long leg of my flight from Piermont Mountain to Sugarloaf covered 110 miles at a glide ratio of 213:1! I spent only 5.2% of my time in two thermals at an average climb rate of 632 fpm.! For the entire flight I thermaled 18.2% of the time. All amazing metrics, clearly spectacular conditions for New England.

One of the things I had noticed with my flights was that my average bank angle was lower and my velocity higher than what I would have liked. The saving grace was that everyone else seemed to be about the same. We seldom fly directly into the strongest lift and center the core for an entire thermal. We level out to move our circle, sometimes repeatedly, and I know I tend to relax as I climb. I am looking for the next cloud, checking traffic and not necessarily only focused on staying centered.

The table below shows Region 1 flights of 250 miles+, which were posted on WeGlide from 4/21 through 5/1. Twelve flights, seven pilots, three airfields, various gliders.

Click to enlarge

The second table has bank angle and velocity for the same flights. This data is taken from WGlide. I think it is representative of our actual bank angles while in a thermal.

Click to enlarge

The Max. bank angle / velocity is for a single segment. For Evan and myself this was one thermal. For Kari it was a long segment.

To come up with an average of average bank angle over 10 flights I eliminated the high and low. The result is 32.6 degrees, and a velocity of 55.8 knots. Someone with more statistics knowledge may want to dive deeper into this and then tell us what it means.

Conclusions:

The King of bank angle is clearly Kari. Only Evan comes close to Kari’s average for a day, but Evan’s was in only one thermal. Kari had an average bank angle of 43 degrees at 56.5 knots. This is about same velocity as the rest of us but with 10 degree less bank angle! They do not build gliders like they used to. However, this still only resulted in a somewhat below average climb. Kari was far from anyone else making a true comparison impossible.

Evan is clearly the King of climb with those 21 m wings. He had an average climb rate of 497 fpm over 3 flights. The nearest was Greg on one day at 440 fpm. I am amazed that Evan has an advantage of roughly 100 fpm over everyone else? How is that possible?

I can claim second runner up for a bank angle of 39 degrees. It was my first thermal, and it was a highly focused climb from 1000 feet above the local terrain.

Tim gets an honorable mention for descending over Post Mills at -372 fpm in a 45° bank, at 88.7 knots and in a 702 ft radius circle.

At an average bank angle of 32 degrees, we flew in circles at best more than 100 feet larger in radius than what Kari flew and what is theoretically possible.

I also looked at a few recent long flights in Europe and Mifflin. We are all actually turning tighter than just about everyone!

Are we all close to the sweet spot for our equipment and Region 1 thermal characteristics? Is there room for us to improve? Should we just claim victory and enjoy the experience? What did I miss?

April 26 report

 Andy Kozak writes:

Sunday the 26th did not start off well for me. Alasdair showed me that the NESA 2-33 was missing a cotter pin on one of the bolts holding the tailplane. The nut was spinning freely but still attached. It had been assembled after our safety meeting and then flown a week ago. I then pre-flighted it Saturday for my Flight Review, with Alasdair. I try to touch everything I am checking to make sure I do not just give it a cursory look, but apparently I had not done so this time.

Bob Iuliano was already climbing out over Hawks Ridge when I released just below him. Usually we would fly together as long as possible but Bob had to get back earlier that day. When he headed toward the Green mountains, I took a northerly track up the middle of the state. The clouds looked good everywhere. A slight detour to the Greens along with the arc formed by the mountain range would result in a longer path versus heading due north. One of my goals has been to fly to the Canadian border, and this seemed like a good day to give it a shot.

The initial clouds worked well. I hit a relatively low point of 4800 feet near Chelsea, but the cloud I had been aiming for looked good and I was within range of Post Mills, so no worries. Near Montpelier I made a pointless diversion east toward what I thought was the best cloud in the area. It offered weak lift but at least afforded me a bit more altitude. It also gave me time to look around, and I noticed wisps of clouds starting to develop in the blue area just to the west. I backtracked west and headed toward the cloud street above Barre. All of this time I was within spitting/gliding distance of the Barre/Montpelier airport, so again, no worries. Turning west turned out better than expected and I was able to turn north while still in the blue. From there I flew without the need for any major climbs, just thermaling enough to top off my altitude.

One of the things that I think has helped my soaring is that I have learned to focus on being smooth and being more selective when slowing down. Not every patch of lift needs a sharp pullup. The glider gains energy in the small pockets of lift that we traverse and every control input or change in flap setting costs something in terms of drag and therefore altitude. I try to pay attention to what my flight computer’s MacCready speed-to-fly is telling me but I do not react instantly to every change. I try to avoid slowing down in anticipation of lift. Not every cloud works and slowing too much leaves me with little energy when I find sink instead.

There are several metrics available in WeGlide that I track. One is glide ratio over segments of flights. The leg from my initial climb to the border was 109 miles. On that leg I achieved a glide ratio of 63/1, significantly better than my theoretical 48/1.

There was a cloud growing just on the Canadian border and there was a light wind from the north. I could see the border on my flight computer but from 5,000 ft I could not actually see the 20 ft border break on the ground. Several roads in the area made it somewhat confusing. I turned, just barely touching Canadian airspace and gaining some altitude in the thermal while enjoying the view.

Heading back south the lowest point of the flight at 4600 feet came when I was near Morrisville airport. There had been a larger than normal gap between clouds but again the clouds ahead looked very good so I was never worried. I had also started to notice that the clouds over the Greens were at two levels, indicating a convergence.

Flying south I experimented with the optimum distance from the convergence line and found it to be well to the east versus closer to the convergence. However, I never did get extremely close so perhaps it would have been even better at that point.

Between Sugarbush and Killington I was able to fly without turning. Near Killington I gained nearly 1000 feet in a thermal and then an additional 2000 feet in straight flight. I did not turn again until well past Bennington. At that point the clouds seemed to be a bit more spread out and there was smoke from a rather large fire. Two years ago I had come this far and then tried to return under an overdevelopment only having to land at Bennington. Not wanting to repeat that, and with plenty of altitude, I turned back. Retracing my recent path I maintained altitude and decided to head east and add a bit of a triangle to the flight. This had the added benefit of allowing me to stay within final glide of Hartness, minimizing the potential need for a retrieve.

In retrospect, I should have continued south into Massachusetts. At that time, I did not know it but two pilots from Post Mills were in the same area with me, just returning from their flights to western Connecticut, near where the three states of Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut meet. Evan Ludeman eventually flew 370 miles and Greg Hanlon flew 304 miles. I could not have flown to Connecticut but I think I could have gone well into Massachusetts, which for me is unexplored territory.

The leg of my flight from the border south covered 139 miles at a glide ratio of 111!  Another WeGlide metric I look at is per cent of time circling. A very good number to aim for is 20%. For this flight it was 16.3%! Needless to say, my flight of 349 miles (560 km) was the longest of my life.

Clearly a great day to fly cross country in Vermont. Hopefully my skills and decision making have actually improved and it was not just the right time and the right place!

August 11 report from Springfield

 Andy Kozak writes:

As you all know, it has been difficult to find good flying days this season. My logbook shows a couple of wave flights early in May. Then two good flights at the end of May and one in June, all around 400 km. It has been a long wet spell since then.

The weekend of August 2-3 was smoke impacted but I still managed two good flights. This past weekend I again had two good flights, both just over 350 km, with a bonus day on Monday of 275 km making for 1500 km over five days, in August, in New England!

Monday August 11th, 6 pilots flew from Springfield: Greg, Bill Detrich, Alasdair, Lee, myself and Tim Chow from Post Mills. Bill Batesole was kind enough to tow. Tim and I have flown together in the past and we decided to do so again. Tim flies an HpH 304CZ. My ASW 27 and Tim’s 304 were both manufactured about 25 years ago but the HPH design goes back to the 80’s so his airfoil is an older design. However, Tim’s 17.43 m wingspan results in a slightly better climb rate. My 15 m wing has a more modern, thinner airfoil, resulting in better performance at higher speeds.

Tim’s OLC link to his flight is here: BU. You can overlay my flight (2R) on Tim’s by scrolling down and clicking on “Meeting Points”. (You have to log in to your OLC account to do the overlay.)

Tim climbed up to me at the north end of Hawks ridge and we decided to head south to Mount Greylock in northwest Massachusetts. Tim had mentioned a low stress flight before we took off and I seconded that. Heading south, the clouds were nicely spaced, and we could be selective in picking thermals, typically only stopping for 4+ knot climbs. Leaving the Springfield airfield area we came into glide range of Mount Snow airfield. Unfortunately, after Mount Snow itself, there were no more clouds to the south. The clouds to the east looked good so we turned in that direction. Further east into the Connecticut river valley the clouds began to thin but we always had a cloud to mark the way. In that part of southeastern Vermont there is a grass strip, Santas airfield, in Putney. After that is the Keene airfield in New Hampshire.

On many days we see a distinct line of clouds over the Green Mountains, with another line of  clouds over the central spine of southern New Hampshire.  GBSC glider pilots typically fly north/south up that central spine from Mount Monadnock, to Mount Sunapee, Mount Kearsarge, on up to the Whites. It was still a bit hazy up high so it took some time before we could faintly see Mount Monadnock. It took even longer until we could evaluate the clouds in that area. They were not as closely spaced as on our run south, so prior to reaching Mount Mondanock, we turned north.

It is always a welcome sight to see the glider ahead of you bank sharply and climb, allowing you to follow directly into the core. There was little wind and we were staying above 5000 feet so the thermal cores were easy to find. On only one occasion did one of us turn back when the trailing pilot located a strong core. My flight computer shows my flight path as a color coded line, with red indicating lift, so it is fairly easy to find a core should I turn in the wrong direction or choose to turn back for lift I flew through. When in a thermal, my flight computer screen displays a circle of dots on my screen showing the strength of lift throughout my previous 360 degrees of turn. This allows me to extend my circle toward what I hope is the strongest lift. I focus on making these adjustments as smoothly as possible. When centered in a thermal core I will try to relax and basically not touch my controls. I believe this allows the glider to fly itself the most efficiently possible. Doing that will also show you the correct position of your yaw string for that bank angle and speed.

As we flew north, the Connecticut River valley to our west was almost all blue, to the Green Mountains. Ahead, the clouds were now spaced further apart so we maximized our climbs to stretch our glides. Our lowest altitude, approximately 4400 feet, was just before Sunapee, but we were by then within glide of Parlin/Newport New Hampshire. We could have chanced an earlier crossing, west toward Springfield, but any significant stretch of sink, with no clouds to mark thermals, would have been risky. We flew north past Mount Sunapee turning northwest toward a wispy cloud near Grantham. It grew as we climbed under it. We had kept our eyes on a large cloud over the Croyden range but I was concerned it may be late in its life cycle. Spreading out under it we both found lift but Tim had the stronger core. I joined Tim and we climbed to over 7000 feet. This allowed us to leave on a long glide, crossing over the top of Lebanon’s Class D airspace (3100 feet). The clouds there were slightly overdeveloped offering no strong lift, so we turned south toward Springfield still within a long glide. Shortly after that it became relaxed sight seeing time. Clouds and lift were plentiful, and the airfield was easily reached.

I do not recall flying into any strong lift when not indicated by some degree of cloud development. I think we made the correct call in not taking a chance on a very long crossing in the blue. Flying together served us well. You can relax somewhat when following another glider and it is a lot of fun to climb closely together in a thermal. There are not many more beautiful sights than another glider just off your wing! The ideal position to join another glider in a thermal is on the opposite side of the circle, which allows both pilots to see each other. It also puts you out of harm’s way, should a glider stall and spin. For the most part we maintained that discipline but there were a few instances where one of us ended up on the others tail. Then it was just a matter of slowing up and widening your circle.

I also post my flights on WeGlide. The free version also has an additional statistics page which shows averages for L/D, climb rate, bank angle, speed in the thermal. It also shows % of time circling. I use these to evaluate my performance and decision making. My average bank angle was a little lower and circle diameter larger for this flight which is to be expected. You are not as free to steepen your bank angle or slow down when near another glider.

Lee Blair had the longest flight of the day by heading north to Montpelier.

Weekend report July 19 - 20

Seven flights on Saturday, including Shawn getting back into the 1-26 and two solo achievements.  Jeff flew the 1-26 for the first time, and Zach had his first solo.

Congratulations to Zach LaRochelle for his first solo!

And congratulations to CFI Moshe for the signoff and to Tim for the bucket work.

Weekday report May 20

It was the best day in a long time:  low clouds, a crosswind breeze, and cold.  But at least it wasn't raining!

Tim and Greg, heroes both, decided to force the issue and put on a day of training, daring any student to show up for some pattern tows in the 2-33.  Two took the bait, new member Jeff Bernard and Erzo.  The two of them got some great flight and ground instruction from Greg, while Tim did the towing.

Here's a picture of Jeff getting ready for his third flight.  Note the winter hat and down jacket.

The forecast is for more of the same weather for several more days.

First Slacker Day

 The weather pattern so far this season has been disappointing.  We seem to get a beautiful day about once per week.  The six intervening days are usually quite horrible, with grey skies and every possible mix of precipitation.  Here's hoping the pattern ends soon.

Yesterday was the one beautiful day.  A Slacker Day was hastily arranged the day before, and Andy agreed to be the towpilot.  The day began with no clouds at all and very little wind.  The forecast was for moderate lift to 4500 feet.  They got the altitude right, but not the lift strength.  It was a struggle to stay in the air, giving us some good early season practice.

Tim (BU), who is the only pilot logging his flights on OLC so far this year managed 75 kilometers.  Greg (JR) headed out to Dean but got low most of the way there, nearly landing in a field.  He got back up and came home.

Local flights were made by Paul and Moshe in the Blanik and by Rick and Shawn in the 2-33.  Shawn then had a short flight in the 1-26.

A modest but definite start to the soaring season.  It is fair to say that we haven't missed a good day yet.

Assembly Day

 After a bit of confusion on the Forum about whether the weather would be suitable for assembling gliders, and a last minute decision to go for it, we gathered at the airfield yesterday and got to work.

The ground was just barely firm enough, and the air was just barely warm enough to get things done.

It was a fine turnout.  Andy, Dave, Dennis, Greg, Henry, Kari, Klaus, Leslie, Moshe, Paul, Peter, Rick, Shawn, and Tim pitched in and assembled two gliders and fetched several others from storage.  It looks like a gliderport again, with two gliders tied down and about 10 trailers parked in the assembly area.

And we flew!  The instructors bootstrapped themselves into currency and proceeded to give field checks to a few members.

Welcome to the 2025 season!

A real outlanding

We had a Slacker Day on Monday.  Greg (JR), Tim (BU), and David (JD) flew away, and our new member Shawn got a couple of lessons in the 2-33.

The XC guys had great flights, but only one of them made it back home.  At the end of the day, Andy hooked up Tim's trailer while Greg quickly disassembled and stowed his glider.  Then Andy flew the towplane to Dean to fetch David, and Greg hit the road to go get Tim in Bradford.

Congratulations to everyone for the teamwork - and to Tim for making the first real outlanding of the year.

Weekend report April 30 - May 1

There was good flying on both days of the weekend, but Sunday was better.

We welcomed new member David Schafer on Saturday, and he got two lessons in the Blanik, the second of which lasted over an hour.  Dennis (DC) finally got in the air for his first flight of the season, and Greg (JR) and Evan (T8) flew together on a 400 km zigzag flight that took them to both the White Mountains and the Green Mountains.

Sunday was the day we have all been waiting for.  Excellent lift in blue conditions.  It was very good in the high ground, and Greg (JR), Dan (EA), David (JD), Rick (LEL), and Kari (2C) all made it up to Mount Washington.  Moshe (RU) explored central Vermont, with turns at Montpelier and Lebanon, where he was happy not to land.

When David got back from the mountains, he made several O&R excursions and finally landed after everyone else had gone home.

This was David's first serious cross country flight, with a credited distance of 312 km.  He flew for over 7 hours, which may be a duration record for a flight out of Post Mills.

Back in Post Mills, Pete D (3BA) and Paul (S1) made local flights, and Sonny made the mistake of flying his airplane on an outstanding soaring day.

Thanks to Don and Andy for towing, and to Darrek for improving the 1-26 trailer.

Opening Day

A lot happened on April 18, our first day of operations at Post Mills.

First of all, the weather was beautiful.

Andy and Don traveled up to Franklin County airport to pick up our freshly-painted towplane.  While they were gone, our new roller (donated by St. Johnsbury Academy = arranged by Andy L and Bob D) arrived on a really big boom truck.

At the end of the day we had two preseason checkrides and four current towpilots.

Weekend report May 7 - 9

It's not easy being a newsletter editor when you're out of town on a spectacular soaring day and nobody writes their story.  All of the following is scraped from the OLC, a few emails, and the forum.

On Friday, technically a Slacker Day, there were eight flights posted, for a total of 2979 kilometers.  Everybody ran up to Mount Washington (probably together), and either came home directly (NT, DC, 2C) or via an excursion over to the Green Mountains JR, T8, AG).  Tim (BU) did the run twice, for 516 kilometers.  David (505) racked up 69 kilometers in the local area in the 1-26.

That was a lot of good flying, and congratulations to everyone.

But if you think that was special, consider this:  Tim (BU), Evan (T8), and Greg (JR) flew all the way across the Champlain valley into New York on Sunday.  This has never been done before.

The next day Evan wrote:

Yesterday, Tim, Greg and I kicked over the left side of the Post Mills sandbox, crossed the Lake Champlain valley and flew to the highest point in New York State.

One of the reasons for trying this on Sunday was that the weather forecast seemed to indicate less likelihood of overdevelopment on the Adirondacks.  Another is that the wind direction (SW) would keep us out of the wind shadow of the big part of Lake Champlain.
 
The second bit worked as designed. The first not so much. It OD’d on us hard, but we managed to find the climbs we needed to make it back. Patience and teamwork were required. Glider performance helps too!
 
Last night I emailed Adirondack Soaring to tell them we’d planted our flag on Mount Marcy and claimed it for the republic of Post Mills.
 
I added “next time we’ll try to bring better weather.”

I don't know what's more amazing, the flight or the fact that Evan wrote about it.

Weekend report April 17 - 18

The best news from the weekend is that we had a ground school session inside the clubhouse with five fully vaccinated attendees!  It has been a long time since something so normal has seemed normal.

Both days were cold.  Saturday was a bust due to drizzly conditions, and Sunday got off to a slow start with the overcast, wind, and ground school session.  Finally, Greg and Rick went up in the Blanik for a review of spins, and Henry and Rick flew the 2-33 which really needs some sealing work.

Tim stopped towing and took off in BU at 4pm, for a very interesting 2.5 hour flight.  At 6pm he reported that he was five miles out and would be landing shortly.  The cloudstreet that brought him back to Post Mills kept on going for 20 more miles.  He turned around somewhere around Canaan, New Hampshire and rode the street all the way back home.

Three members with perfectly good gliders (Sonny, Don, Dennis) stayed on the ground and worked as ground crew.  This was much appreciated, but they missed some good flying at the end of the day.

Assembly Day

 It is rare for us to go flying on Assembly Day.  It is even rarer for us to assemble and fly at Post Mills before April 15.  This year we did both, thanks to hard working members, an accommodating insurance agent, and climate change.

On Saturday, Darrek, Dennis, Don, Eric, Greg, Henry, John, Kari, Keith, Moshe, Rick, Sonny, and Tim all showed up early, and by midday, three club gliders were assembled and two of them flew!

The first flight of the year was accomplished by Tim towing Moshe solo in the 2-33.  One more just like that one, and Moshe became our first current instructor.  Here's a picture of him keeping his wings level on our sloped runway.

He wound up flying with Dennis, Sonny, Eric, and Henry.  Thanks, Moshe!

While this was going on, the overcast broke apart, and it turned into a decent soaring day.  Tim assembled BU and took off.

Greg stood next to his new glider and listened patiently while Rick told him things he already knew about it.  Then he had his first flight in the glider that will be known shortly as "JR."

Meanwhile, Darrek improved our tiedowns, Don improved the towplane tailwheel, and Eric organized the clubhouse.

Eric and Dennis bought the beer this time.

We are off to a good start!

Weekend report April 3 - 4

 Moshe (RU) disentombed his glider on Saturday and took his first flight of the year on Sunday.  Here's his report:

The forecast changed completely, but the winds were still light when I took off at noon.  It turns out I should have taken off even earlier (I was ready at least 30 minutes earlier). 

I concentrated on trying to reach the potential wave, as there were wavy looking clouds here and there.  To my surprise, winds aloft (within the thermal layer) were weaker than forecast, 8-11 knots according to Tophat.  Most good thermals got strongest (5 knots) above 5000 MSL but died before 6000, probably hitting the forecast inversion.  Some may have been wave-enhanced.

In one area I managed to climb to 7000 in wider lift patches that may have been wave, but I couldn't seem to stay in that lift, nor get any higher.  By then the wind reported on the ground was up to 15G20, luckily from the WNW rather than the forecast NNW.  And the thermals got difficult to find and work.

I hit some turbulence in the lee of Hawks Mountain, enough that my head hit the canopy pretty hard, so I decided maybe it's time to land, even though I've only flown a bit more than 2 hours.  Remembering the sink on the approach to runway 29, I came in close and high, planning to land halfway down that runway.  Once on final I pulled full spoilers - and in a few seconds I was staring at "the numbers" at the approach end.  Wow.  Kept the nose down and closed spoilers and all was well.

Weekend report March 27 - 28

 Tim (BU) and Rick (LEL) had a couple of 4 hour flights out of Springfield on Saturday, in thermals and wave.  The conditions were mostly blue.  The clouds were of no help.

Tim made it to 8000 feet in the Okemo wave and measured 29 knots of wind up there.  Rick didn't get as high, but he managed to fly sideways up to Lebanon before falling out of the wave for good.

We had great support from NESA:  Alasdair and Larry on the ground and Jerry in the towplane.  Thanks, guys!

Meanwhile, the runways at Post Mills are still quite squooshy.

Weekend report March 20 - 21

 The season got off to a modest start on Sunday at Springfield.

Tim (BU), Rick (LEL), and Dennis showed up on a beautiful afternoon with no clouds and very little wind.  Tim and Rick flew locally for a couple of hours each.  The thermals were weak and widely spaced with the exception of one good one over the summit of Mount Ascutney.  It topped out at 5000 feet, but most of them didn't make it through the inversion at 3500 feet.

NESA flew checkrides in the PW6, so the total number of tows logged by the CallAir was about seven.  They are trying out the new Proving Grounds program, which is supposed to get more people flying cross-country.  It seems a little strange that one of their turnpoints is Lebanon Airport, with a control tower.

It was warm enough to take your time assembling, lubricating, pumping up tires, etc.  The conditions were benign enough that all the rusty pilot mistakes were inconsequential.

Breaking up the band

Thanks to everyone's least favorite microorganism, we've been forced to divide our efforts between Post Mills, Franconia, and Sterling recently.  It was more fun when we could all fly together.

On Monday, Evan (T8) made a great flight out of Franconia, shuttling back and forth between Moosilauke and Berlin, making a couple of wave climbs along the way.  It was too windy to fly at Post Mills.

Then yesterday, in winds that were only slightly more reasonable, a couple of big counterclockwise flights out of Post Mills were made by Tim (BU) and Greg (JD)

Finally, today, Dan (EA) and Evan (T8) took off at Sterling and flew west and north for 420 and 352 kilometers, respectively.

We're thinking about getting the band back together.

Weekend report May 22 - 25

PMSC finally got underway at Post Mills this weekend, thanks to all the work on the towplane performed by our chief towpilot and chief mechanic.  It's never obvious how much work the two Andys do in order to keep us flying.  It's a lot.

We did a pretty good job of observing our amended COVID operational rules.

Under our new (hopefully temporary) rules, every day is a Slacker Day.  This isn't great for our primary students, but it makes it easier for our instructors and towpilots to fly on the weekends.  Don't let them tell you that they aren't enjoying this.

Another consequence is that our first weekend of the season was also our first 4-day weekend.

Friday
The conditions were blue with light west winds.  The day started with thermals to 5000 feet, rising to 7000 feet by late afternoon.  Evan, Tim, Dennis, and Eric flew out of Post Mills, and Rick launched at Franconia.  Tim and Evan flew nice round trips to the White Mountains.  Eric did that as well, but was a bit more ambitious.  He wound up landing at Claremont after rounding his final turnpoint at Springfield.  Rick also landed out, conveniently, at Post Mills.

Dennis was the hero of the day, driving down to Claremont to pick up NT, bringing Eric back to Post Mills, then turning around again and driving home (not that far from Claremont).  He walked into his house at about midnight - and was back in Post Mills the next morning.

Saturday
Technically, Saturday can be called Assembly Day, since the 2-33 and 1-26 went together, thanks to the efforts of David, Peter, Karl, Andy, Don, and Karl's buddy Dave from Florida. That leaves the Blanik, which suffers from lack of pilots so far this season.

The weather was strange.  It wasn't blue, but it might as well have been.  High bands of stratus and a few altocu didn't help at all.  Thermals were sparse and difficult to center, but with patience, they could be worked up to 6000 feet.  The wind was southeasterly, which was disorienting.

All flights were local.  Kari probably had the longest flight, with Evan and Peter not far behind.  Dennis had a short one, and Rick couldn't even stay up.  David flew the 2-33 twice and is back on track to get his license early this year.

Sunday
The day dawned clear, but a thin overcast moved in just before launch time and hung around for the rest of the day.  From the appearance of the sky, you wouldn't have thought there was any lift at all.

But this is May.  The airmass is so good that it doesn't take all that much sunshine to get things going.  Tim (BU), Peter (505), and Greg (JD) all had local flights.  Peter's total time in the 1-26 this season is 5 hours already.  He got to 4800 feet and was the last to land.

Monday
Nobody flew.  But before you deny that this was a 4-day weekend, thank Tim for standing by to be the towpilot all day Monday.  The overcast was solid, and the slackers gave up early, as they always do.

There are 12 trailers on the field now (including HK, which just arrived from Florida).